Quotation from treaty, not John Adams

Opinion: Who wrote U.S. government is not founded on the Christian religion?

Geoff Chambers, in his letter to the editor, declared that John Adams wrote, "The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."

Adams did not write that. It was part of the Treaty of Friendship with Tripoli that had been written by Joel Barlow during President Washington's administration but wasn't ratified by the Senate and signed by President Adams until June 1797. The quotation is part of Article XI, which pledged an everlasting "tranquillity" between the United States and the Muslim government of Tripoli.

However, in spite of the efforts of four U.S. presidents to achieve a diplomatic cessation of the piracy of U.S. merchant ships and enslavement of American crewmen by the Muslim governments of Tripoli, Algiers, Tunis and the Sultanate of Morocco, such war against U.S. shipping was not ended until President Madison dispatched U.S. warships, led by Stephen Decatur, which defeated the Muslim pirate ships, resulting in a treaty ending such piracy by the four Muslim-governed nations.